The Growth Coach has worked with tens of thousands of small business owners over the years to help them gain more freedom, fortune, fulfillment and fun. We have a proven coaching process to do the same for you. Put simply, we would help you to re-design your existing company to be more distinct from you and quite candidly, work in your absence. After all, your goal should be to create a separate cash flow entity, a real business, not merely a job for yourself. In the end, your business should pay you a healthy salary plus a return on your investment of money, time and effort. You should build equity! You should build wealth! Bottom line, your role as owner should be to shape, manage and grow this independent and enduring asset...your business.
Your enterprise should function without you, not because of you. I know this sounds bizarre, but hear me out. While you can be the brains behind the enterprise, you should not be like Hercules trying to hold up the entire weight of the company! It will crush you! You will end up feeling overworked, overwhelmed and like a prisoner to your business. Instead, your business should work harder so you don’t have to. You should be able to make money everyday without having to work everyday...the choice should be yours. To achieve this level of freedom, you should invest more brain equity and leadership equity and much less sweat equity into your company. Sweat equity is fine for the first few years, however, perpetual exhaustion is NOT OK...you deserve more. Your business should be a product of your brain, not your brawn.
You should strive to build a business that does not enslave you and does not rely on your being present every minute of every day doing all the thinking, deciding, worrying, and working. You must adopt a new way of thinking and acting. You must become a strategic business owner. Specifically, you must learn to adopt a CEO mindset; systematize and document your business; lead more and work less; create a simple business plan; utilize the leverage of marketing; effectively manage your greatest asset, your people; and learn to let go. In short, you must transform the way you see yourself and your business.
As a strategic business owner, your primary aim should be to develop a self-managing and systems-oriented business that still runs consistently, predictably, smoothly, and profitably while you are not there. You should shape and own the business system (an integrated web of processes) and employ competent and caring employees to operate the system. You should document the work of your business so that you can effectively train others to execute the work. You must make yourself replaceable in the technical trenches of your business. To repeat, define and document the specific work to be done and then train others and learn to delegate. This is how you begin successfully to beat the blues, escape death by details, and gain greater freedom.
With a documented operating system, your employees should be able to carry on the work of the business while you focus on big picture priorities or God forbid, decide to take a break. You should be able to escape the daily drudgery. In fact, your company should run on autopilot status even while you’re on an extended, work-free, guilt-free vacation. If it does, you will have designed and built a business that truly works and is worth a fortune. More importantly, in the process, you will have gained back a personal life that is fulfilling.
To maintain freedom, independence and fulfillment, as your business grows, so must your leadership effectiveness and operating systems. You must stop micromanaging and start leading (macro managing). You must become more purposeful and proactive. Specifically, The Growth Coach takes business owners and managers on a business-improving and life-changing process. Here is an overview of the seven key steps:
Step One: learn to work on yourself by transitioning to a new way of thinking and behaving. Re-program yourself and your habits. Stop acting like an employee and start thinking like a CEO. Learn to work on your business, not in your business. Be strategic, not tactical; work less, lead more!
Step Two: systematize your company by creating, documenting and continually improving all your key processes, procedures and policies. Trust the business system and personnel you put in place and remove yourself from the company’s daily details. Be more hands-off and more brains-on. Replace yourself with other people. Define and document the work to be done. Train others and delegate the work. This operating system is your foundation for freedom.
Step Three: increase your leadership capabilities. Excel at leadership, not doer-ship. Your business needs a clear vision and strong leader to hold others accountable, not another employee doing technical work. Help build and direct your team.
Step Four: develop clarity of direction for your business and employees by creating a simple business plan and an effective implementation process.
Step Five: learn to effectively manage your people, your greatest asset.
Step Six: instead of incremental growth, engage the leverage of marketing to achieve substantial, profitable growth.
Step Seven: learn to let go, delegate, and truly enjoy business ownership, your relationships, and your life. By working less "in" your business, you gain more time to work "on" your business and make those essential changes necessary to optimize your company and your life.
Click here for our highly popular and free business coaching e-book, "Becoming a Strategic Business Owner". It will reveal a great deal more about the seven steps.
You may well be skeptical about this whole freedom and fortune path. That’s normal. However, let me ask you “Are your current paths and strategies truly working”? "Do you have optimal success at business AND at home?" "Do you know in your gut that you could be achieving so much more?" The Growth Coach has helped tens of thousands of clients...we can definitely help you.
I invite you to acknowledge the problems in your business and at home and take responsibility for them and dare to try new approaches. You have no excuses, download the e-book above and be sure to click here to locate one of our business coaches near you.
Daniel M. Murphy
President, Founder & Business Coach
The Growth Coach
Business Coaching Franchise System
Certified Business Coaches throughout North America